How to Add Affiliate Income Streams to Your Business | by Dolly DeLong Education Workflows & Systems Expert

As a small business owner, I’m always looking for additional ways to add streams of revenue to my business – especially after the last year and a half. I know I’m not the only one who wants to do so, either! In fact, I’ve had several business owners reach out to me about how I’ve successfully added additional streams of income to my business, so I thought I’d share some of my tips. I generate a smaller revenue stream through affiliate income, so here are some tips on how you can add affiliate income streams to your business, too! 

✅A quick note before we begin though… building this additional revenue stream has taken me almost 2 years to implement and I’m still growing and changing things! I also do NOT solely rely on this income for my business or household. I’m simply adding to what else I do and sharing some of the systems that have worked for me. 

Step #1: Do the research.

Before I start sharing about anything as an affiliate, I research to make sure that it’s in alignment with what I offer as a family and branding photographer or as a systems and workflow expert. Whatever I’m sharing about should actually be something I care about and use regularly. Think about what you use every single day in your business (or life). When you start to promote, be authentic. Share what you truly love about these products or programs. And honestly, you can’t be authentic if they’re not things you use every single day or actually love!

Step #2: Develop a strategy on how to promote these products.

When it comes to making income from these affiliate products and links, this is the step business owners tend to miss. It’s easy to share about a program or product once or drop a link in their profile. And it’s easy to add a resource page to your website… but that’s not going to work long-term. Instead, create a system to share about them regularly. For me, that looks like a micro-email sequence about the product. When someone clicks to learn more about the product I’ve shared about, they’re dropped into a little sequence of emails about the item. Additionally, I have pins that send people to a landing page where they can learn about the product and an opt-in banner where they can learn about the product as well. Again, they’re dropped into that mini-email sequence and get all of the information! 

Another easy way to share about the products or links is by inserting them into my content pillar pieces. This means any time I can mention a program or product I use in my blogs, I add my link! Remember, blog content can be found for a very long time so this is an easy way to keep that link out there for people to find over and over again. Of course, you can also build a resource page that contains your links, opt-ins, and favorite business tools. But make sure you’re sharing about it, too! 

My other favorite strategy to promote affiliate links and products is through Instagram Marketing in my stories and reels. At least once a week, I’m sharing about a program or product I LOVE for my business. Social media marketing is a great way to share these links. 

A very important thing to note: anytime you are promoting a product you are potentially going to get an affiliate commission off of, please do the decent thing and add a note about that on your website & on any other platforms, you are using to promote your favorite items. Here is a screenshot of how I do this on my website:

Step #3: Build yourself a workflow. 

Once you’ve decided what strategies to focus on to promote your affiliate links, build a workflow. Remember, a workflow is like a roadmap. You have a destination in mind but it’s going to take some time to lay out all of the steps to get yourself there so be patient with yourself. For me, each month I lay out what I’m going to share about in my pillar content. Once I have that built out, I can decide which links or products to promote with those pieces. I love batching this out every single month – if you want to learn my entire system, I have a batching content masterclass for you!! 

Step #4: Track your income. 

The last step to add affiliate income streams to your business is to track your income from each source. Collecting data takes time so don’t make yourself too crazy at first. I collect all of my data and implement it into the Creative Bookkeeping Template so I can see exactly which affiliate links are helping me the most. I love that the template has a graphic showing me all of my income sources for easy comparison and review. Collecting data like this can help you determine where to place your energy!

Summary 

Adding affiliate income streams to your business isn’t hard – it’s just about the right strategy. Begin by deciding which products and programs are a good fit for your business. From there, begin to think about the easiest ways to share them regularly with your audience in a natural and authentic way. Each month, take the time to review how they might fit within your pillar content and track your income so you know where to put your energy moving forward. This process takes time and patience but it can become a powerful income stream for your business with some effort and hard work! 

And if you are interested in seeing my entire business resource list of what products I promote on a weekly basis (again tools and products which go along with the theme of my business) then click on the banner below to be taken to my resources page!

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Meet Your Friendly Nashville Family Photographer/Family Photographer Educator & Systems + Workflow Educator

Dolly DeLong is a Nashville-based family & branding photographer and a creative business owner who educates other family photographers on how to best streamline their family photography business by using powerful automation tools in order to find the JOY in workflows and systems.  Dolly loves serving families, and business owners with her timeless, radiant photography.  And, she also loves educating other business owners on how to set up systems and workflows that will ultimately help them save time in their business.

She has a heart for serving the larger business community. Dolly shares her knowledge of tools like Dubsado, Email Marketing, and Business Systems with new creative business owners & family photographers in an encouraging and supportive way because she believes that anyone can find joy in automation! Plus BONUS: Systems is where the MAGIC happens!

Dolly’s faith and love for her family motivate her to help other business owners find the joy and freedom she’s found in running a successful small business.

Whenever she has a spare moment, she enjoys watching TV (i.e. Survivor), loves eating way too many sweets, and listens to podcasts while running or walking. To work with Dolly DeLong Photography LLC, fill out her contact form here.

Interested in learning how to best automate a part of your business but you have no clue where to begin? Check out www.dollydelongphotography.com/automate to begin your automation journey today!

Resources for Family Photographers To Automate Your Business

(*Click on the banners to get started! It’s super easy to work with Dolly DeLong & it’s super easy to automate your business today!) 

Learn how to start growing out your email list as a family photographer

Learn why it’s important to know the customer journey (your ideal client’s customer journey) so that you, the family photographer, can create content that speaks to them! 

Learn how to streamline & track your finances for your family photography business with ease! 

Learn the magic of saving time by batching out your content so that you can focus on other areas of your family photography business! 

Learn the foundations of Workflows for your family photography business

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